Briggs’ request to scuttle the business fee lawsuit came a day after inewsourcepublished an investigation of the more than 30 nonprofits — including San Diegans for Open Government — that Briggs is affiliated with. Twenty-two have been suspended or revoked by state or federal agencies.

To see a comprehensive spreadsheet of the entire network of nonprofits, including each group’s name, status, officers, legal standing and more, click here.

During the seven months in between, while the corporation was suspended, court records show Briggs entered into at least six cases on behalf of the nonprofit against the city, the county, the state and a construction management company. The convention center case was one of them.

BIDs are a collection of 18 locations where the business owners generally pay from $40 to $500 a year into a fund for improvements and activities — such as block parties, farmers markets, street festivals and promotions — that benefit the businesses in that area. Districts include areas of La Jolla, Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, Little Italy and North Park, among others.

The Little Italy Farmer’s Market is paid for in part from Business Improvement District fees. The money generated from the market goes toward improving the district. Photo by Chris Lee

Scott Kessler, executive director of the Adams Avenue Business Association, told inewsource his organization’s 600 members — a mix of storefront businesses, apartment owners and home-based businesses — pay on average $60 a year to fund the association. That money is spent on street fairs, festivals and tours and generates seven to eight times that amount, Kessler said.

“Then we plow that money back into what we do,” Kessler said, which is marketing and revitalizing the commercial corridor.

Its officers have stated under oath that Briggs Law Corp. oversees and pays for nearly every aspect of the group’s operation:

According to depositions and other court filings, Briggs and his firm hold and maintain all the group’s corporate records; file and pay for its lawsuits, its annual registration fees and filings with the state and federal governments; control itsFacebook andTwitter accounts; and collect all settlements and judgments when the group prevails in court.

San Diegans for Open Government doesn’t have any money — nor has it recorded any revenue or expenses with the federal or state agencies, according to government records. Its CEO, Richard Lawrence, said under oath that the organization doesn’t intend to seek funds because it wants “to operate as simply and cleanly as possible.”

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For more than a year inewsource reporters have been investigating Cory Briggs, a well-known San Diego environmental and public-interest lawyer who has made a name for himself suing government agencies and developers under the California Environmental Quality Act.
Reporters combed through thousands of pages of land records, environmental impact reports, invoices and contracts and found highly questionable transactions, potential conflicts of interest and a persistent disregard for state and federal laws. The ongoing investigation quickly prompted action and reaction.
For updates on this project, subscribe to our newsletter below.

Brad Racino. Investigative Reporter

Racino is an investigative reporter and videographer at inewsource.

Since 2012, he has produced work for print, radio and TV on a variety of topics for inewsource, including political corruption, transportation, health, trade and surveillance.

In 2013, Racino won both the national IRE award for investigative reporting and the Sol Price Award for responsible journalism.

In 2014, Racino shared a second IRE award, the Columbia Journalism School's Meyer "Mike" Berger award, two Edward R. Murrow awards, a national Emmy award nomination and a national Association of Health Care Journalists award with colleague Joanne Faryon for “An Impossible Choice.”

Brooke Williams. Investigative Reporter

Williams is a veteran award-winning investigative reporter who specializes in data-driven journalism.

She is currently a contributor to The New York Times, and her work has appeared in the Center for Public Integrity, inewsource, the San Diego Union-Tribune, KPBS, ABC World News and the New Republic. She wrote a chapter in "The Buying of the President 2004," a national bestseller, and built the first nationwide database of allegations of local prosecutorial misconduct in 2002 to help report and write "Harmful Error: Investigating America's local prosecutors."

She won the George Polk Award in 2003 and was a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists in 2005 and the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award in 2012.